iPods

04/18/2013

This is not my original idea, but if you haven't tried it out yourself, I recommend it! The project can be explored with middle school students, high school students, and college students.

What is the relationship of music and movement - in our making of dances and as an audience member?

This winter, we did this project in one of my middle school dance elective classes. We called it "The iPod Project." Students were divided into trios, duets, or working solo. Each group created a one minute vignette. They could not be "wed" to any kind of music - I played a variety of music as they choreographed and rehearsed. (You can shape this in many ways in a class, and individual pieces can be 1-3 minutes in length.)

At the end of the trimester, we had two open studio performances for fellow classmates, teachers, and parents. We came prepared with a handful of iPods loaded with music, earphones, and also "prepped the audience" to bring in their own music devices.

I explained our experiment to the audience. Each one of them selected a song for each of the dances. Afterwards, we talked about the experience. Overall, the audience was really engaged and intrigued by the project. They loved choosing music, the element of surprise, and "being a part" of the dance project in a small way.

As the teacher, I saw my students take their choreographing to a new level. They maturely handled not having a set piece of music to use each week, and they rose to the occasion of "dancing in silence" for the performances.

I highly recommend trying out this simple idea - whether as a class exercise or as a component of a performance.